Could you descend into your basement lab and concoct a much better-looking quarterback than this? He’s 6-4 and 220-pounds with a strong right arm capable of delivering all the throws, light feet to keep him out of harm’s way in the pocket, and a keen intellect to allow him to excel at reading defenses. He has enough speed to clock in the 4.7s in the 40-yard dash, enough agility to clock in the 4.1s in the 5-10-5 shuttle drill, and enough power to threaten 20 reps with 225 pounds on the bench.

No wonder Stanford signed this player who arrived in Palo Alto as the No. 4-rated pro style quarterback in the country, according to Rivals.com. And no wonder his future looks so bright.

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But enough about Andrew Lu … wait a minute. We’re not even talking about college football’s biggest name since Tim Tebow—the greatest Cardinal since John Elway and the surefire No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft. Although all of the words in the previous paragraphs could easily apply to Andrew Luck, they happen to be about Luck’s likely successor, junior Brett Nottingham.

“I think my time watching Andrew was very useful,” Nottingham, from Alamo, Calif., told Sporting News this week. “I like to think that sitting on the bench and watching him had a lot of benefits. I do some things that are similar to him.

“But I’m a different football player than Andrew. Whoever is out there under center—and I hope to God it’s me—can’t try to be him.”

About that “whoever” thing: Nottingham isn’t just paying lip service to the notion of a quarterback competition. Last season’s second-stringer will have to fight for the starting job with veteran Josh Nunes and others; rather quietly, in preparation for Luck’s departure, Stanford has brought together one of the most promising groups of quarterbacks in all of college football.

“All of the guys we have are really good and could start in a lot of places,” coach David Shaw told reporters in December.

“It’s going to be a lengthy competition that you guys are going to want to hear about after each day. But it’s not going to bear any fruit, I’m sure, until a couple of weeks before our first game. We’re going to draw it out and get as much data as we can on every single guy and let it play out.”

It’s a competition Nottingham could indeed lose—but it would be an upset. He is the frontrunner.

What else is he?

A student of the game who has refined his throwing motion and release since arriving in Palo Alto and spends as much time in the film room as Luck did.

“I like to think of myself as a pretty cerebral guy,” Nottingham said.

He’s also a self-described “internet junkie” who reads everything he can about not only Stanford but all the programs in the Pac-12.

“Andrew told me later in his career not to get too caught up in it,” he said, “but I have to admit I love reading about all the story lines, the questions, the guys who need replacing, the awesome new coaches.”

He’s the son of an orthopedic spine surgeon—and, if you listen to his parents, a good enough quarterback and kid to be the backbone of the Stanford program.

“He’s a great son. He’s a dream,” said Paul Nottingham, a former walk-on at Cal whom Brett calls the most influential person in his football career.

“I’ve watched him and considered his skill set critically, and I think he has what it takes. If somebody beats him out, he’s going to be a darn good quarterback. Otherwise, I hope Brett can be an all-Pac-12 quarterback and lead Stanford to BCS games and deliver for David Shaw a winning program that carried on this tradition that Andrew started.”

Which would be a little like Asaron Rodgers stepping in post-Brett Favre and more than holding his own comparatively. Or, perhaps more accurately, like Tee Martin stepping in at Tennessee post-Peyton Manning and leading the Vols to even higher heights than the program’s iconic star of stars had.

Think those are unnecessary overstatements? We mention those quarterbacks only because both Nottingham and his father did—not at all boastfully, mind you.

“Peyton Manning left his program in much better shape than he found it,” Brett said, “and Andrew Luck did the same.”

Cardinal fans will like this final anecdote. On his second day as a student at Stanford, Nottingham called home to speak with his parents, as he continues to do on a near-daily basis.

“He said, ‘Well, I am no longer special,’ ” mom Debbi recalled. “He told us how special everyone at Stanford is—how everyone, whether a football player or not, is an amazing kid in their own right. He has always been so impressed by all the people there.”